Casey Anthony gets 2 convictions dropped

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Casey Anthony should only have been convicted of two counts of giving false information to police, not four, a Florida appeals court ruled Friday.

The court split the difference between arguments made by prosecutors and by Anthony's lawyers, the Orlando Sentinel reported. When Anthony was acquitted of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, jurors found her guilty of four counts of making false statements, but the appeals court found that she should have been convicted of one count for each of two police interviews.

The decision is likely to have little practical effect. Anthony, who had been jailed for months awaiting trial, spent a few more days behind bars before she was released in 2011.

Prosecutors argued Anthony's conviction on all four counts should stand. The defense said it should be thrown out entirely or reduced to a single count, arguing that lying to police was effectively a single act.

Anthony has stayed out of the public eye since the trial. She has been sued for defamation by a woman who was questioned by police because she had the same name as the babysitter Anthony initially blamed for her daughter's disappearance and by a Texas search organization that joined the hunt for the missing toddler.